Traveling with Firearms — Tips for Road Warriors
If you plan to travel far from home this year with firearms, then you should research legal requirements before you head to the airport or hit the road in your car or truck. To help Road Warriors, The Shooting Wire website recently published an excellent article concerning Travel with Firearms. This helpful article by Joe Balog features smart advice from 3-Gun competitor Rich Yoder.
Here are Highlights from the Travel with Firearms Article…
Traveling by Road:
Regulations for transporting firearms in a vehicle vary from state to state. Some are quite lenient, while others are much stricter. Within many states, gun transportation laws also vary considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. If possible, keep your gun cases locked in your vehicle’s trunk or truck bed, as long as your bed has weather-tight and lockable security. If your guns are outside the passenger compartment, in a case, unloaded, and kept separate from ammunition, you’ll be in compliance with all but the strictest of local and state gun laws.
Traveling by Air:
When checking in at the airport, travelers need to declare that they are traveling with a gun. At that point, airline personnel will quickly advise the traveler of the need to open his or her case and inspect the firearm. Always wait for the TSA inspector before unlocking or opening the case, and only do so when clearly directed to do so by TSA personnel. Never take a firearm out of its case in an airport.
You have the right to remain with your firearm at all times during the inspection process. Never leave your firearm until the inspection is complete, the case has been re-locked, and you are in possession of the key or combination.
Traveling Overseas:
There are additional steps during international travel. Specifically, guns must clear customs in the destination country, and once again when entering back into the United States. Multiple government forms may need to be completed and carried with the firearm, like U.S. Customs Form 4457. Be sure to check into all required paperwork well before traveling.
READ Travel with Firearms Article on The Shooting Wire
Similar Posts:
- Access Travel Guides for Gun Owners — State by State Booklets
- Free Travel Guides for Gun Owners — State by State Resources
- Access FREE State-Specific Travel Guides for Gun Owners
- Travel Guides for Gun Owners — FREE State by State Booklets
- Guide to Traveling with Firearms — Valuable Resource
Tags: Airline, Customs, Firearms, Joe Balog, Rich Yoder, Shooting Wire, Travel, TSA
“You have the right to remain with your firearm at all times during the inspection process. Never leave your firearm until the inspection is complete, the case has been re-locked, and you are in possession of the key or combination.”
I wonder where one might find that in writing, as in printable for a reference?
I’ve flown a bit with my match guns, and procedures vary *wildly* from airport to airport.
Last year @ Raleigh-Durham, the airport staff wanted me to hand *them* the keys to my case, while *they* took it behind closed doors to be inspected. Obviously, I refused, politely but adamantly. They weren’t happy, but arranged for another airport personnel to escort me back past all the “Authorized Personnel Only” doors, dodging (literally) baggage cars ferrying to and from planes, to a fellow in a corner with a stationary scanning machine. Once the cased fire-arm passed (never opened), we went *back* out to the check-in area and then progressed normally.
All the while, I was thinking to myself that no way, no how, would it have been a good idea to let some random airport person (not even TSA, as far as I could tell) have the keys to my gun case… but they acted like it was standard practice there.